New federal standards could have your kids eating healthier at school. Credit: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) - Schoolchildren would have to hold the fries - and pick up more whole grains, fruits and vegetables - on the lunch line under proposed new federal standards for school lunches.

The Agriculture Department proposal applies to lunches subsidized by the federal government and would be the first major nutritional overhaul of school meals in 15 years. It is expected to be announced Thursday.

The guidelines, which were obtained by The Associated Press and confirmed by USDA, would require schools to cut sodium in those meals by more than half, use more whole grains and serve low fat milk. They also would limit kids to only one cup of starchy vegetables a week, so schools couldn't offer french fries every day.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the new standards could affect more than 32 million children and are crucial because kids can consume as much as half of their daily calories in school.

"If we don't contain obesity in this country it's going to eat us alive in terms of health care costs," Vilsack said Wednesday, prior to the release of the guidelines.

While many schools are improving meals already, others are still serving children meals high in fat, salt and calories. The new guidelines are based on 2009 recommendations by the Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences.

The announcement comes just a few weeks after President Barack Obama signed into law a child nutrition bill that will help schools pay for the healthier foods, which often are more expensive.

The subsidized meals that would fall under the guidelines proposed this week are served as free and low-cost meals to low-income children and long have been subject to government nutrition standards. The new law for the first time will extend nutrition standards to other foods sold in schools that aren't subsidized by the federal government, including "a la carte" foods on the lunch line and snacks in vending machines. Those standards, while expected to be similar, will be written separately.

The announcement is a proposal, and it could be several years before and schools are required to make changes.

The new USDA guidelines would:

- Establish the first calorie limits for school meals.

- Gradually reduce the amount of sodium in the meals over 10 years, with the eventual goal of reducing sodium by more than half.

- Ban most trans fats.

- Require more servings of fruits and vegetables.

- Require all milk served to be low fat or nonfat, and require all flavored milks to be nonfat.

- Incrementally increase the amount of whole grains required, eventually requiring most grains to be whole grains.

- Improve school breakfasts by requiring schools to serve a grain and a protein, instead of one or the other.

Some school groups have criticized efforts to make meals healthier, saying it will be hard for already-stretched schools to pay for the new requirements. Some conservatives, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, have charged that telling children what to eat is a case of government overreach.

Vilsack says he understands the new standards may pose some challenges for school districts, but he believes they are necessary. He compares obesity and related diseases like diabetes to a truck barreling toward a child, and the new guidelines are like a parent teaching that child to look both ways before he or she crosses the street.

"You want your kid to be able to walk across the street without getting hit," he says.

According to the USDA, about a third of children 6 to 19 years old are overweight or obese, and the number of obese children has tripled in the past few decades.

The Agriculture Department also is planning to release new dietary guidelines for the general public, possibly as soon as this month. Those guidelines, revised every five years, are similarly expected to encourage less sodium consumption and more grains, fruits and vegetables.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. This article was written by MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

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ReaderComments (Page 4 of 4)

How about reforming the Food Stamp system and limit what THEY buy and leave my kid alone. I pay for her lunch! and I pay for my own food, but have been behind people in line in the store paying for groceries with FOOD STAMPS and they have nothing but junk food- and I've seen someone buy WATER & ICE with food stamps????That's the main problem!

Why is Michelle box car butt Obama telling anyone what they can and can not eat? Take a one way trip back to Kenya, Barry and family. Get rid of the soda, chip and candy machines. Lobbyist make millions for all these companies courting the junk food machines our tax dollars pay for. And if you believe the "proceeds go for band uniforms" you're nuts.

Improving school lunches always seems to be a goal that never gets reached. We cannot get rid of school lunches because it is still one of the only meals some kids can count on. Our elementary school offered no lunch program at all so we all packed a lunch for our kids everyday. Sometimes kids forgot to bring their lunch or parents don't send a lunch (sometimes on a regular basis). I was in the office talking to the secretary one day when a little girl came in and told her,"I'm hungry." Often times the the secretary would give them a cereal bar she had bought with her own money or cold pizza left over from PTA Pizza Friday or there was nothing to give them. It was then that I realized our middle income neighborhood still had hungry kids. Furthermore, this two year old building had no cafeteria because it was deemed that there was no need in our neighborhood for subsidzed lunches. My daughter told me stories about the kids who often didn't have lunches so the other kids would give them parts of their lunches, a kind of pooling system. Yes, school lunches are an important part of our schools and must continually be improved. My daughter also informed me that the taco salad at her middle school didn't actually contain salad. It was just seasoned ground meat and corn chips.

I remember many years ago when the schools banned candy bars, would not let my diabetic brother eat his because it was against the rules & he nearly died. Sure, one size fits all diet plans, just expect a little collateral damage.

thing i that the reason kids r picky with food is becaue the parents allow it. yes i can understand a kid not liking liver or tongue or things like that, but if someone doesnt likeanything other than beef or chicken its in their heads

This is long overdue. My kids brown-bag it, but many do not have that luxury or the $ to do it right. Our school system (in Windsor, CT) sees no problem in having pizza on the school lunch menue 3 times a week and often accompanied by fries or other potatoes. Otherwise, it is chicken nuggets in one form or another.

sarah palin needs to keep her not so smart mouth shut. imagine ..forcing kids to eat healthy food! HOW DARE THE GOVERNMENT!!! OMG... i bet she was against manditory seatbelts for kids with parents too stupid to use them.. give the parents freedom to get their kids killed...keep government out of it.. sheis a waste of a life.

Seems to me that government regulation needs to shove it. All you parents that don't have a clue will never get a clue. And you listen to Michelle Osama tell you what you should eat. While proper food intake is part of our problem, it is not the main problem. Children sitting around drinking anemic drinks with low fat and false sugars while strengthening their thumbs on video games is the main problem, with this false healthcare the second biggest problem. Prior to thirty years ago, not too many children were obese. They got outside and played. Parents played with their children. Parents sat at the table and ate with their children and actually spent time allowing the food to digest. Now, instead of promoting health, we take drugs to fix problems, causing more problems, taking more drugs to fix that problem.... We don't try to eat healthy. We don't try to play and work healthy. Whole milks are still better than "lite" milks. Sure, they promote more fats into your body, but that is more fats for you to work off while you play or work. That doesn't mean playing video games and watching a television. False sugars, as is "diet" sodas, do nothing but promote obesity. The fake sugars don't trick your body as they do your tastebuds. Your body needs sugar, so that is why you see a 5'5" 250# woman in drive-thru ordering an extra large diet pepsi with her extra large fries and extra thick burger. She does no execise and thinks her "diet" drink will offset het laziness and food enough for three people. Yes, we ate those rectangular pizzas and other supposedly horrendous foods in school thirty plus years ago, but we ate all the other foods as well. The only difference is that we did it in moderation. Government needs to get out of our faces with what we do. If you want to be a mindless drone with no original thought in your head, keep letting government regulate how you and your children live while you pay 75% of your total income to them. Yes, 75%. Unless your a nonworking, live off the system, slug that wants to be regulated.

This is just like Hilter before long they will be telling us how to wipe our BUTTS!!!!!!!Not all heavy people is due to eating and trhey need to quit using it as an excuse on every heavy person!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Before long they'll have camaras in each home to watch what each person is doing!!!Where is our rights and freedom?????????????????????????????????This is becoming another communist country watch out AMERICA there will be no more as long as people like this who run our country tell us and our children what we can and can not do!!!As for Insurance bull they charge double for what we get in return!! Deductalbe 3000 a person and so far none of us have ever hit that freakin amount so we pay for our own meds.They've done taken our jobs from America to other countries and we suffer for that which will never be returned or prices lowered again so the lower income get poorer and the rich become richer off the lower!!!!! Cause we pay and support each president thats out of office what happened to you living on medicade like the rest rest of the real world???? You did your job like we do ours so give up that fancy ____ home and live like we have to!!!!!!!!!!No way would you you like draning 5the people Like HILTER I beleive our government has turned against there own for more greed in there pocketd.Thank GOD! YES THANK GOD! I won't be going where your going and neither will your Freakin selfishness!! and your riches youve taken from we the people yes us people!!!!!!

I will pick my child up from school and feed her lunch at home. I will not allow my child to believe the government supports her. I am sorry to say this, but the children who only get one meal a day because of school lunches have a big screen TV - electronic toysat home. These government dependent families know how to work the system. Maybe the government should start a meal at home delivery service. High school and college students could earn some money as there are NO JOBS FOR THEM.

HAVE YOU EVER WORKED IN A SCHOOL TO SEE WHAT GETS WASTED NOW AS IT IS?????? THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS AND DOING THIS WILL EVEN BE MORE THOUSANDS SO LUNCHES WILL GO UP OBAMA DOESNT CARE THEY FORGET GET THE LITTLE PEOLE DON'T HAVE THE MONEY! aND THE 1ST THING i SPOTTED WAS THE SCHOOLS ARE BEING MADE TO PAY EXTRA FOR THESE NEW MEALS CXAUSE THE COST MORE!!!! eVERYTHING YOU SEE AND HEAR IS oBAMA MUST NOT HAVE ENOUGH IN HIS POCKETS YET!!!I BET IF YOU WENT AND TOLD THEM WHAT THEY HAD TO EAT THEY WOULDNT.tHATS EVVASION OF YOUR HOME AND PRIVACY OF YOUR LIFE.WHEN THEY GET DONE WE WILL HAVE NO SAY IN THIS AMERICA AS THERE TAKING OVER AS IF THEY ARE HILTERS 2ND HAND WORLD TAKE OVER!

SINCE WHEN DOES THE PRESIDENT HAVE THE RIGHT TO TAKE AWAY OUR FREEDOM OF WHAT WE DO AND TELL US WHAT WE HAVE TO DO!! SINCE WHEN HAS OUR FREEDOMCHANGED???AND WERE JUST NOW FINDING OUT WHERE LOSING MORE AND MORE OF IT ECERY DAY.

I send my child with a healthy lunch a few times a week, but she trades. Plus not all children can afford to bring a lunch, it's good they are providing lunches for those in need..but they deserve to eat healthy also

TheTalkies

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